I consider myself to be a healthy eater: I eat mostly whole foods that are plant strong. I stay away from processed foods as much as possible. I’m not perfect... I do eat some packaged/processed stuff and not-so-healthy things, but the goal is to eat a majority of whole foods that come from plants in the course of a day.
I would love to have all the food I eat made with fresh ingredients, but I don’t have the kind of time to make it all myself. I’m sure most of you don’t either. I’m running a business, and I’m a parent to two young kids, which doesn’t leave me time to make everything I (or my family) eat.
So how can a 3D food printer help?
Take my lunch I had today as an example, pictured above. I had a whole wheat wrap filled with quinoa, millet, lentils, salad greens, cherry tomatoes, and topped with balsamic vinegar. Sounds pretty healthy, right?
Not entirely.
I bought the whole wheat wrap from the supermarket. It’s a processed, packaged food. There are 9 E numbers in it. Nine! (E numbers – with the E for “Europe” – are codes for substances that can be used as food additives.) After a Google search, I discovered that the E numbers in my whole wheat wrap fell into 3 general categories: (1) preservatives, (2) emulsifiers/ stabilizers/ thickeners / gelling agents, and (3) others. Hmmm. Very mysterious with that last one.
It sounds like my healthy lunch is really less healthy than I thought, despite using a healthy sounding whole wheat wrap.
What’s the alternative?
I could just not eat the wrap. But... I like wraps.
I could make the wrap myself. The dough is easy enough to make (mostly flour and water), and I could actually pre-make the dough and keep in the refrigerator for a few days. But the forming of the wrap, that’s a mess. I would have to have a clean work surface to roll out the dough (admittedly, my kitchen doesn’t always have a clean work surface available at all times... did I mention I have two young kids?!), flour my work surface, and try to roll out the dough correctly. (I usually end up having to use too much flour to battle dough stickiness when rolling it out, and can never seem to get it thin enough yet strong enough to hold up as a wrap. Too much flour to form it = not a good wrap.)
Or.... I could print it! How easy it would be to keep a batch of fresh dough in the refrigerator, pinch off a bit for a wrap when it’s lunch time, and print the perfect wrap.
And my dough would not have 9 E numbers. It would have 0. I would know - and be able to pronounce - all the ingredients in my whole wheat wrap.
So the answer is yes, a 3D food printer can indeed help a healthy eater eat healthier.
Full disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Natural Machines, the makers of Foodini: a 3D food printer. Foodini makes all kinds of savory and sweet foods, using fresh, real ingredients.
